Eureka Springs High School
by MusicalWonder
Summary: An interview with recently named Congressman Christopher Waldrip wherein he discribes his experiences during the War.
1. Chapter 1: First Sight

PINE BLUFF, ARKANSAS

[I enter the new political center of Arkansas, the midsized city of Pine Bluff. Carter Waldrip greets me at the door and ushers me into his office. The young man lights up the cramped room and gestures towards a nice upholstered seat as he sits down behind his messy wooden desk. His boyish looks are not easily disguised by the worn suit and his easy smile betrays him in the otherwise serious atmosphere. He's the kind of man that is far too easy to like which that is certainly a contributing factor to his recent successful campaign.]

**Thank you for taking time to meet with me Congressman.**

No problem, no problem. It still shakes me up a little though, having people call me Congressman or sir and stuff… Call me Carter huh?

**Sure Carter. So I was wondering if we could talk about your time during the war. In Eureka Springs?**

[Weak nod] Oh. Of course. I wasn't expecting you to delve right into it. Guess that's what you do though, reporting and all.

**It is. Could you tell me what happened?**

Sure [small laugh] I've been going over it so much in speeches, might as well get it all out at once huh?

It was the beginning of August, a week before school was supposed to start. I was student body president, elected the spring before so it was my job to get in and get set up for orientation. Pulled together my brand spankin' new council and we let ourselves into the school. I was so proud of the stupid set of keys they gave me, like they could open the door to the future instead of just the door to the gym storage room.

**There were no adult supervisors?**

Didn't figure we needed 'em. We were a bunch of kids with the opportunity to run through the halls recklessly if we wanted to but we swore up and down to be responsible. The twenty of us were supposed to be the best and brightest in our classes and we were itchin' to prove it. Looking back I suppose we really some supervision, someone to keep us in order when it all went down.

**Didn't you know about the infestation already?**

Kind of. I mean we all heard about the weird new rabies but thought it was an African thing like AIDS or somethin'. We didn't know it had moved to port towns in the States and even if it had we wouldn't have taken it seriously. That's was the thing about being young before the war, bad things happened somewhere else and you were invincible.

It was evening by the time we started to pack up. The morning had been spent in the front hall, this long stretch that divided the school in two, hanging giant banners across the tops of the walls; _Go Highlanders_ and all that. The afternoon we were downstairs on the second level, setting up registration for the incoming freshmen.

It was late when we finally decided to call it a day. The sun was setting over downtown and we were laughing about how we were gonna run the school that year. I had my arm around Mili, my girlfriend. I was planning on driving her home then sticking around until her parent's got home when we saw the first one.

She was small, kind of, with this bright red hair that looked like it was usual brushed in a straight line but it was a mess. Same thing with her clothes, all torn and shredded, like a wild animal'd got to her.

Chris was the one who called out to her. He was this tall, lanky junior who always reminded me of one of those walking stick bugs. He yelled out to her, asking if she needed help of something. Her head turned towards him slowly, like they do when they're distracted from a target. Then she started walking towards him, trancelike. We figured maybe she was some tourist, drugged out of her mind or something. She was moaning low, something that made us want to help not run. We didn't know, we had no idea that we should run.

Chris walked towards her, thinkin' she was lost or something but the rest of us fell back. We had no clue what was happening, no context whatsoever to the woman walking towards us. She shuffled at a consistent pace, which was when I noticed she wasn't wearing shoes, just the remains of socks circling her ankles.

They met as Chris passed the first row in the parking lot. He kept calling out to her, calling her ma'am and the stuff, real concerned. Not concerned for himself though. That was the thing, I think, in the beginning. They look so much like us that you can't help wanting to help them. You feel like there's something you can do 'em that'll snap them out of their actions, like hypnotism or something.

I'll always remember what he said then, his last words. As he closed the distance between him and the creature he kept saying "It'll be alright, it's going to be alright."

It wasn't. It never could have been. When he took that final step between him and her he closed the seal on his death without even knowing it. She sort of lunged at him, snapping her teeth like a crazed animal. She tore into his outstretched arm with the kind of vigour I usually reserved for when my mom made ribs. It was gory, all that blood and muscle coming out. [Pause]

We didn't run though, not until he screamed. I'd never a sound more shocking or agonizing than that poor junior getting himself chomped on out in that parking lot. A few of us ran to help him, looking to soothe the salvage creature chowing down on our friend but not me. It was cowardly I'll admit but something inside of me said there was no saving Chris at that point.

**So what did you do?**

[Presses lips together and stares out the high window for a moment.]

I ran. I took Mili's hand and we took off back inside the school. We only looked back after we'd locked the doors and were staring at them from behind the plated glass in the front hall.

She moved on from him to another rescuer a sophomore girl I didn't know well. The girl went down fighting but still got bit.

Two kids had reached Chris and tried to pull him up to his feet but from their crying I could see that he looked already dead. They got him up about halfway when he turned.

The boy I'd known for ages was gone and replaced by a raging, snapping monster. He got the two holding him easy, they were bent over him in a position that must have screamed ripe for the pickin'.

Other kids turned and ran back to the school like us. I unlocked the door but couldn't stop starin' at the scene outside.

Our first encounter with Zack left us confused and scared, trapped like animals behind the glass doors. When the one of the kids Chris had got finally stood up, I turned everyone away from the window.

That was just the beginning of the War you know? There was so much more we'd have to witness before it was over.


	2. Chapter 2: The Difference

We stayed there all night, Zack bangin' on the doors. Pushed some desks up against the windows to keep them out then holed up the gymnasium with baseball bats and whatever else we could find to use as a weapon. We were scared, calling our parents and not being able to get through. Some were crying and some were saying that we had to get out there, that we had to warn people. That's when I stepped up.

**How long did that take?**

About an hour? Two? It was right before the first group go the big idea that they'd charge the doors and get out. We had no idea what we were dealing with.

**And it didn't occur to you before that? To take control?**

[Carter shakes his head] You have to remember man, we were kids. Adults were always supposed to come help us if things got too rough but we found ourselves reaching out and no one was there. We were alone and confused.

**So what did you do?**

I stopped 'em. I was still the president so I held a bit of authority I suppose. I told them that going out and attacking these things wasn't going to do anything but get us all killed. It was safer to stay and wait for the police or someone to come deal with it.

**And was it? Safer?**

Not a day goes by when I don't wonder that. At the time it was though. If we had gone out without a plan though, with no knowledge Zack, we would have been signing our own death certificates.

**So you stayed.**

[Nods] We ended up settling down in the auditorium with makeshift weapons and some food we found. It was lucky the cafeteria'd been stocked already for the first week of school or things might have been way worse. It was all we could do to wait for morning.

**And what happened in the morning?**

Nothing. There was the same collection of kids trying to get us all to leave and again I talked 'em down. We still had power and food and shelter so I said why waste it? Staying put and sittin' tight was the best we could do.

And the same thing happened the next day and the one after that. I kept us together, kept us all working so the terror at the back of our minds wouldn't take over. All that mattered was keeping moving forward and we lasted. For weeks we rationed out the cafeteria food and fortified the school and ran it like our own little town. We barely saw Zack for most of it, though we heard him pretty well. Every time he was spotted you'd drop what you were doing and head down into the auditorium where we'd wait it out. Nothing too exciting but it worked for us.

**And you just waited? It never occurred to you to fight?**

[Laughs] Oh man did it ever. We didn't have the luxuries the outside world did though. We didn't know what killed 'em, though we tried. Went up to the roof a few times and tried to pick off the ones below but that hardly worked because we didn't have guns. All we had were things we could salvage from the school and that lacked severely in long rang weaponry.

**So what ended up getting you all out?**

Ah, the eternal battle for salvation. After awhile, when our supplies had all but run out and we were pretty much living off of the vegetables and fungi we could grow in the biology labs garden, therumble of escape got louder. I usually tried to keep it low key but kids were talkin' about it, sayin' how they'd just go out and find their families and it'd be all okay. I never let it get so far as an actual plan, though, because I knew there wasn't one that could guarantee any degree of safety. That is until Jackson Lee figured it out one morning.

Jackson was this scrawny little freshman who badly wanted a spot on the council so he got invited along as sort of a test run. Would've ended up as freshman representative [smiles] if things had played out the way they should have. Anyways he was this real clever kid who was more curious than a cat with a paper bag and he spent a lot of time studyin' Zack, learned his behaviours and his mannerisms. It was him that first introduced the concept of headshots to us.

He rigged up these archery bows from the gym supply closet and sharpened the arrows so they were more of a cross bow. It worked, at least up on the roof, at pickin' off Z heads so long as you could take the time to aim. Time was all we had back there so really, Jackson offered us our first real means to defend ourselves. We could even go on the offensive if we wanted! That was when the talk of escape started getting too loud for me to block out any longer.

**So you all just went?**

Well no. We held a meeting y'know? I wasn't supreme leader and is was still to the best of our understanding we still were in America. We counted everyone who wanted to go and went to work makin' enough weapons to cover our backs.

**So not everyone wanted to leave?**

No, of course not. Seein' what had happened to Chris really spooked most of us and some wouldn't even go near the freakin' doors! Understandable of course, given the circumstances. We were divided nearly half and half. Started with the eighteen kids we had and ended up with seven to go and eleven who wanted to hang back.

**And which party were you in?**

Leavin'. I had a family out there, baby sister and momma and dad to check up on. I needed to know.

**But you didn't try to convince others to come with you?**

It was their choice, man. It was smart, given the circumstances. Why go out into the unknown when we could survive here? Why leave the relative safety we had for the unholy embrace of the z heads tryin' to knock down our door?

**So who was in these two camps?**

Of the seven of us goin' there was me, Jackson of course, two sisters and three sophomore guys who wanted out. Took us two days to prep and those two days were some of the tensest I'd ever had.

**Really? Why?**

Mili, man. She wouldn't go and we spent the whole last two days fightin' over which was the better course. She begged me not to leave, said she didn't want to lose me and I pleaded for her to come with me.

**And in the end?**

She stayed and I went. And, as the prewar poet Robert Frost said "That has made all the difference".


	3. Chapter 3: Outside

That was hard man, to leave kids that we knew; guys I'd thrown paper airplanes to and girls I'd chased around the play ground. Of course there was Mili, there was always Mili. Leaving was hard man but tell me something that wasn't. Point out one person to me who's had an easy ride through the entire war. Our individual sufferings may vary but as a collective we've lost so much, more so than any society before us and hopefully more than any that may follow. [Stares out the window above my head.]

**So what happened when you escaped?**

[Gives a slight smile and returns his gaze to me] We left as soon as it was light enough. The seven of us said our goodbyes to those who would remain and departed in a swift silence. All that lay before us was unknown and we would face it head on.

The first task was to get to the parking lot and we didn't even know if we could do that. As we turned our backs though, I could feel the eyes of everyone we were leaving behind watching from makeshift barricades. I promised myself that they would be safe there, that their choice was already made. I had to tell myself she would be okay and I just had to keep moving forward. Had to get home. But God, they must have been prayin' somethin' hard as we walked away from them because what happened was a flat out miracle.

Arkansas was smack dab in the middle of the white hot zone but we got out alive and unscathed. Just picked off the few that came out after us and we were home free, so to speak.

Of the seven who'd decided to face the outside, only two of us had actually driven that day so we split. Jackson and the two Anderson girls climbed into my used Chevy and the three guys followed us in their beat up Honda Civic. I drove and the older of the two sisters, Brianna, toyed with the radio. It was freaky, nothing but static. I mean Eureka Springs wasn't really a small town; there was always somethin' to listen to. The dead airwaves were our first indication that this was bigger than anything we could've imagined trapped in that school all those weeks. Eventually, she turned it off but the silence wasn't any better. Though none of us would say it, our thoughts were of home and what we might find when we got there.


	4. Chapter 4: Coming Home

At the end of the road, it split in two and so did we. The guys waved and honked their horn at us as they turned left towards town. I watched them in the rear-view until they were finally out of sight. Somehow, that final separation made it all the more real. We were really four kids going home and not knowing what we would find. As we turned up the first street to my house, I held my breath. I would deal, I promised myself silently, whatever I found at home I would deal with and everything would be fine.

Walking up those steps was almost unbearable, like when you're watching a horror movie and the girl goes towards the attic 'cause she hears a noise? Everyone in the theatre is hollering at her not to do it but she always does and it never ends well. I paused at the front door but I couldn't make out any sounds so I unlocked it and let myself in and-

Nothing.

I searched in every room but I couldn't find my parents or my little sister anywhere. Walking into the kitchen, I found this. [He slides a crumpled and worn out piece of lined paper across the desk. In faded ink are the words:

_Carter_,

_We're going north, following the radio broadcasts by the government. We don't know where you are but we can't wait any longer for you. _

_We all love you but we need to go. _

_If you're reading this you need to get out of here Carter. Something bad's going on and no one knows exactly what it is. _

_Come north, stay safe and find us. I love you._

A long period of silence before he speaks his next words.]

They did all they could by leaving that note, I realize that now but then I was just angry. In my mind they'd just up and gone without even bothering to look for me. How could they not have waited, I wondered. How could my own family have given up on me? They said they'd always be there for me but when it really counted, when I needed them more than anything they weren't.

Those aren't emotions a kid can deal with at the best of times and right then I was so angry I couldn't see straight. So I went to my room, packed up a sports bag with some clothes and stuff and left. Didn't even lock the door behind me. I just got in the car with the others and we drove down to our next stop.

**And how did they react?**

They understood I guess. I mean I told them the least that I could get away with. Handed the note off and they read it. You could feel it, the worry in the car. If my parents weren't home then what was going to happen when they got home?

The next was Jackson, just down the block a ways from me. The kid looked so scared when I parked, just kept holding onto the door handle like it was the only thing tying him to this earth. I leaned in and told him he didn't have to do it, that he didn't have to go in if he didn't want but he just shook his head. Finally I asked if he wanted me to come with, just to check things out. I was really just tryin' to get him out of the cab before he puked but he nodded so I got out too.

Together we made our way up the steps of this old, one story bungalow, neither of us talkin'. Jackson clicked his key into the door and I followed him in, makeshift cross bow in hand. The house was silent, like mine had been and I let out the breath I'd been holding. We searched the house but found even less than there had been in mine; no note or nothing. Jackson's father, who he'd lived with for years was gone and there was no trace.

"We have to go north then," he said to me, with this wild sort of gleam in his eye. Then I didn't recognize it but now I know it as the look of a man who's lost everything and is clinging to one last thing to keep him from going off the edge. That last hope was to go north.


	5. Chapter 5: The Last House

**So what happened after that?**

After that? We ended Brianna. Not harshly or anything but by that point we knew what happened if Zack got a hold of you and you went down. Couldn't be helped. It was me who did it; Shelby and Jackson were both too shocked out of their minds. It's an awful moment to end someone but it had to be done.

**Then you just left?**

Not so much. We couldn't be there long, no good for any of us. But we did scavange the house, collected food and supplies and loaded it in with the rest of the stuff. We buried Brianna near a copse of trees by the house, what was left of their mother beside her.

Shelby just sat there, too blown away to help and we understood. [Pause] That was the first time it dawned upon me how lucky we'd been so far. Jackson and I, we still had a chance. Shelby'd just lost what was left of her family in one blow but for all we knew ours were still out there. For the first time in the war, I really felt hope.

**How long did it last? The hope?**

Long enough. It's a tricky emotion that, like a candle burning. You don't notice it so much when the room is lit and happy but when you're alone and the lights go out it's all you have to go on. And when it's snuffed out you're left in darkness like none other.

By the time the light started to fade, we'd packed back up into the truck. Nothing was left in that house and that afternoon was something we all couldn't wait to put behind us. None of us spoke too much that first night; we spent it at Jackson's place, huddled under blankets in the living room because none of us wanted to be alone. I started to feel the crushing futility that you find in the hot zones. When there's nothing but Zack for miles around you and you can hear his cries echoing though the night, that does something to a man. We whispered plans for the next day, always looking ahead.

Shelby wondered if maybe we shouldn't go back for the other kids in the school but Jackson argued that we needed to move out. Needed to get going and find some help. Some other people. We're just kids he said, there's got to be someone out there looking for us.

**What was your opinion?**

I needed to get out of that place. Eureka Springs was too changed from the town I had once known and I missed my family terribly. The kids back at the school were safe I told myself and I knew going back wouldn't have changed their minds. They had made their decisions and we had made ours. Best to stick to it and soldier on.

**And the final decision?**

To leave in search of other survivors. Carefully we catalogued everything we had and packed it away, getting as prepared as we could for the journey. Again we were heading out into the unknown in search of life and answers. Again we were terrified of what we might find.

Jacksons father had a gun, tucked away in the top shelf of his bedroom closet. I remember the kid getting it, having to climb up on a stool because he wasn't tall enough. That was something to see, this scruffy, wiry freshman with his glasses crooked holding up the old shot gun. Looked like one of the recruitment posters the army's putting out nowadays. You know the ones with the kids in fatigues that say "If you don't fight, who will?" I would have cracked up if the moment hadn't been so serious.

**Where did you go?**

North. Followed the road right up to Missouri on that first day alone. And everywhere we went, the people were missing. Small towns're where we stuck to, not knowing at the time if big cities were secure. Time and time again I've said that Zack's greatest ally is a lack of information. We had no idea where was safe and where wasn't. For all we knew, we could be driving away from salvation and right into a red hot zone. There were no radio broadcasts like I've heard others had to guide them. We were truly and completely on our own.

**You must have heard something, even being so far deep into the hot zone.**

The best we'd get was static. You have to remember that this was early on in. There was no electricity and anyone holed up wasn't thinking so much about broadcasting as they were about surviving. The best we got was a recorded message playing over and over in this one town, somewhere up in Kansas. Just this man saying to get out, to leave, that they were already here. We followed it to a radio transmission town that'd been all but knocked down. After that we turned off the radio. Couldn't bear hearing another one of those desperate last words played out over the radio waves for all to hear.

We talked. Filled the empty space with stories about our lives before this. Before the war I didn't know Jackson or Shelby, at least not well but now there's possibly no one I know better. Staying together like that, battling a common enemy, that does something to people. It's things like that you can't come out of without becoming close.

**Did you ever see anyone else?**

Here and there. Before dark every night we'd find some small town to stop in. Find an abandoned house and set up camp. It was there that we started finding people, some who wanted to be found and others who didn't. Rarely did we find a group of more than three or four. I remember each of them, a small beacon of humanity among the sea of despair. We'd offer to take them with us but they'd rarely take us up on it. Mostly they were waiting out the war, staying put until the dust settled. A worthy strategy.

**Did you ever consider it? Staying put?**

Not for me man. Not for any of us. We kept moving, kept criss-crossing the nation in my old beat up truck. Together we made out all right, all wanderers searching for something. Moving on was all we ever did until… [Pause]

**Until what?**

[Smiles] Until we reached Paradise.


	6. Chapter 6: Moving On Out

Hey Folks!

So sorry for the mega long wait for the next chapter, I've been doing so many things for the past ever and stuff but now I'm free and able to deliver steaming piles of fanfiction straight to you in a more regular fashion.

Thanks to all of you who've been following this story since it began and to those who've just stumbled upon it now. Your reviews really do brighten up my life so thank you so much!

There're some real swell developments I've been cooking up so I can't wait to publish them and see what y'all think. A new installment should be up by this weekend

Love and kisses,

MusicalWonder


	7. Chapter 7: Those We Had To Protect

We rolled in mid winter, somewhere around February. Montana wasn't somewhere we'd stopped before but Jackson kept on urging us to "Go north". It was late afternoon when we saw the billboard, the ad long gone and replaced with "Paradise this way" written in red spray paint. We stopped at an unassuming exit and debated it a bit. Jackson wanted to go but Shelby thought we should pass it by. She was the cautious one out of us all, which makes sense considering. I told her we'd just go check it out and besides, Zack wouldn't be up anyhow. We'd learnt that freezing stops 'em by then. She reminded me that Zack wasn't the only one we needed to be careful of. She was right, roving gangs were common and we'd seen a few in our travels. Mostly they'd let us go but sometimes things got a bit unpleasant.

**But you went anyway?**

For every wild group, we found ten normal people like us. Survivors camped out in some of the most ingenious places. We traded supplies but also knowledge which was what we were all hungry for. Jackson and I were still searching for our families and after being out of the loop for so long we felt like we needed to make up for lost time information-wise. So we went down that road and into Paradise.

It's a wild place, not one you would assume people actually lived in. What we saw first was the beginning of the clearing, about twenty miles in from the road. The tree cover got sparser and sparse until it all of a sudden stopped at this wide feild. Everything was buried under a few feet of snow so we couldn't see the plowed fields or the crops sleeping under the ground, it just looked like a wasteland. All that was visible in the middle of all that white was this greying barn up the hill aways.

We couldn't see anyone so I got out and hollered. After our first encounter with a group of less than savoury gents out near California, we knew how to approach the situation. I presented myself because I was the biggest and the oldest. Sometimes that was all you needed to deter a would-be attack. Jackson sat in the driver's seat with the shotgun in his lap and Shelby hid in the backseat. After the encounter in Wyoming when this group of men tried to get us to trade her for free passage she was understandably nervous about strangers.

**Did that happen a lot?**

Sometimes. I mean we were all in crisis mode but some people took it father than others. There's really no criticizing anyone else because you can't know exactly what they went through. I mean, now they're calling it a war and that's exactly what it was. But it wasn't just a war against Zack; it was a war against ourselves. We found ourselves battling hunger, fear and illness but the biggest battle of all was against our fellow humans. People came out of that war warped remnants of who they were before. There was no method to it, and no manner of passing judgement against those who fell past humanities reaches. When the going gets tough you have to get tougher and that's hard. What's harder still is trying to rehabilitate now that the war's over. Restabilising government and civility was near impossible and still is in plenty of states. People went wild and some want to stay that way.

**Why do you think you didn't?**

Go wild? I had something to stay sane for. Not only was I searching for my family but I had two kids who depended on me. I said before that I never meant to be a leader but that's what the war forced me to become. When people need you, when they count on you to be there, you learn how to be. One look at Shelby and Jackson on our first night out and alone and I knew I'd have to step up and be a leader.

**And that's why you got out first.**

Huh? [Looks confused]

**Of the truck. In Paradise?**

Oh. [Chuckles] Yeah I guess it was. That primal instinct to protect those who need it.

Anyway so I step out and it's weird because it's super quite. I mean we were coming from down south where the wail of Zack is pretty much constant but this silence, it's like a wall ya'know? Like the silence is somehow occupying physical space. Then I hear them coming from the trees. About a half dozen guys, no older than us, carrying an assortment of makeshift weapons. So I hollar at them that I see them and they fall back into a loose sort of semi-circle maybe a twenty yards from the truck. One of them steps forward, this bulky dude with a plaid hunting jacket. He asks if any of us have been bitten and so I say no. Then he asks if we're carrying any infected with us. Now that might sound like a stupid question but during the war it wasn't. People didn't understand Zack back then, though there could be a cure or something. You'd see them all over, sometimes with the infected in crates, other times locked away in the garden shed. Once we encountered a group that had one on a leash, like a proper dog leash. The mouth was stuck shut and it wore a mask, like one of those hockey goalies. The things people did… [Pause] But anyways I said no and after a few more question they escorted us to their camp. We had to leave the truck at the opening of the clearing, beside a few other beat up vehicles. And so we walked the half mile up to the barn.

Outside there were fire pits and drying lines for clothes but we went past all that right inside. That's where we saw the what I thought to be an apparition. A girl, no older than nineteen with long black hair and a patient , was gazing down at an infant swaddled in her arms. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't subscribe to those folks who think that Zack's the second coming. There's nothing holy about those monsters.[Takes on a wistful tone] But right there,in that moment, I could have sworn I was staring at Madonna and child. The light coloured her face so softly and baby barely even mewed as rocked it gently, it was so different from what we had known for the past year that I almost fell to my knees and cried.[Pause]

In that barn, on that cold day in mid winter I found for the first time, belief that the war would end. Seein' that baby, not knowing how much shit the rest of the world was in, just happy to be bundled up and warm, helped me see a brighter future. We would survive and we would come out on top. We had to, for the ones we had to protect.


End file.
